Nanaki's Quest
by Maggie Brinkley
Summary: With the help of Cid, the Knights of the Round and a game of cricket, Nanami finds his kin.


**Nanaki's Quest**

by M H Brinkley

To John, with love.__

_This is my first fanfic.  The characters are, of course, created by and copyright by wonderful Square, makers of Final Fantasy VII, the best game in the universe.  But you know that._

_Note: I left the swearwords for you to fill in mentally yourselves, as words like "pillock" and "wanker" (oo, wash your mouth out!) may not be familiar.  I should also point out that a fag is a cigarette; football is soccer; a sixpence is a very small silver coin that's no longer legal tender, alas; cricket is a subtle and sophisticated (or, if you prefer, _tedious and long-winded) game. But you can skip that . __

_Please also note that the spellings are korrekt ;-)___

CID BROUGHT the Highwind in low over the rooftops of Costa del Sol.  At the sound of the throaty roar of her engines people on the beach leapt from their sunloungers, shading their eyes and squinting upwards.  Children stopped playing football in the plaza and jumped up and down, waving their arms; and their parents ran out of their houses, cheering.

Cid chuckled to himself.  "I'm the best £%$$* pilot in the world!" he crowed.  The Highwind touched down outside the town so gently that she scarcely bent one blade of grass.  "In the universe!" he added complacently.

Vincent and Red exchanged a long-suffering look, sighing.

By the time the three emerged, a crowd had gathered to welcome them.  The children shoved forwards to skip about Cid.  "Hey, how fast does it go?" "How high can it go?" "Can it go to the moon?" "What's the picture of the pretty lady on its side?"

"Enough, already!" growled Cid.  "Firstly, she's not an 'it,' the Highwind's a 'she.' Secondly, that's Lady Luck painted on her side, all me own work -"

More questions interrupted him, from both children and adults this time.  With astonishing patience Cid answered them, preening in the glow of their admiration.

Vincent observed, in his detached manner, "Strange to see Cid so popular with these people.  Most folks find his swearing offensive."

"Can't you see? He's almost purple in the face with the effort to mind his language in front of the children."

Vincent raised an eyebrow at the unaccustomed bitterness in Red's tone, but said nothing.  It was not his way to pry.

Red's great, heavy head swung from side to side as he considered the humans thronging about Cid.  Not about him.  Not about Vincent.  When they glanced this way it was with obvious shudders of fear.  On their first visit to Costa del Sol the children had been glad to play football with him, thinking he was some kind of dog.  Tame.  A pet, for heaven's sake!

Now, the tale had spread of Nanaki the Warrior, and instead of Red's kind eyes and his deep, gentle voice they saw Nanaki's claws and teeth, and heard the growl in his throat.

"I don't want to be Nanaki any more," he muttered to himself.  "I wanna be Red."

Vincent, as usual, tactfully said nothing.

Finally Cid refused to answer any more questions.  He waded through the crowd, who fell back when they saw that he approached his dangerous friends.

"Nosy @%££$!" he said around an unlit fag.  But he sounded pleased.  He groped in the pocket of his flying jacket for his lighter.  "Cloud ain't come to say hello."

Vincent shrugged.  "Cloud has never been good with crowds."

"Tell me about it," Cid drawled.  "Let's go find 'im."

He went on ahead, surrounded by children.  One little tot stumbled beside him, trying to keep up, and he stooped and swept her up and perched her on his shoulder, whence she beamed proudly at her jealous friends.

COSTA del Sol was as bright and as beautiful as ever.  Fresh yellow paint adorned the walls of every house, and the words "The Villa Cloud" were inscribed in curly green lettering on the side of the biggest.  Cid made for this building: but the front door was open, and when he stuck his head in and called out, there was no reply.

He set down the little girl and told her to run along.  The children still hovered around him, until he promised to tell them stories on the beach that evening.  Then, squealing louder than the seagulls flying overhead, they finally scampered away.

Frowning, Cid turned to his friends.  "Cloud's not here."

"You do like to state the obvious," Red said, grinning.

"An' where's Barret, an' Marlene, an' Elmyra? Where's Cait Sith the Shinra spy - uh - I mean, Reeve?  An' Tifa?  I was lookin' forward to Tifa's cookin'.  Remember that breakfast she an' Yuffie made, our last meal before we took the road into the Crater?"

"I remember," Vincent sighed.  "You scoffed Tifa's pancakes and the rest of us had to chew our way through Yuffie's crispy-bacon-and-scorched-toast sandwiches."

"Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk..."

They whirled round to see Yuffie strutting over the bridge.

"Well, look what the cat drug in!" Cid greeted her.  "Yuff, I thought you was learnin' special stuff from Godo.  Chucked you out, has he?"

Yuffie gave her trademark twirl, then spoiled the impressive effect when she stuck out her tongue.  "Learning is so GROSS! Boring, boring, boringgg!  I ran away to sea," she said proudly.

Vincent laughed.  He actually laughed.  "You certainly look very green about the gills, Yuffie."

She groaned, clutching her head dramatically.  "Imagine it! A boat-trip all the way from Wutai.  I stowed away, an' when the Cap'n found me he locked me in my cabin for DAYS!! There was a mighty storm all the way here, and I was sooo ill!"

Red cocked an eye at the clear blue sky.  It hadn't rained in weeks.  "I heard that Wutai's starting to trade with the outside world at last," he said with gentle tact.

"Yeah," sneered Yuffie.  "An' Godo sent the Cap'n with a special doc-u-ment saying that I'm Wutai's ambassador - an' he wrote me a letter, too -" She pulled a crumpled piece of paper from the pocket of her shorts.  "Lissen. 'Dear child -' (pah!) - 'it is time you learned how to behave.  Remember that the honour of Wutai is in your hands, blah, blah, blah.'  It's not fair! I can't even run away without him making it an Educational Experience!"

Cid was leaning against the bridge parapet, helpless with laughter.

"Oh, fiddle-faddle!" snapped Yuffie.  "Where's Cloud? Where's the party?"

"Party?" said Red quietly.  "Yuffie... It's not a party."

She pushed past them and trotted down the steps.  "It is, too," she said over her shoulder.  "I want fun on the beach.  I want hotdogs an' Korean BBQ Plate an' Chicken Tikka Massala.  I want an all-night disco."  She began to sing, loudly and not very tunefully, "OH! I'm going to the Costa!"

They stared after her as she skipped across the plaza.

"Brash as ever," Vincent sighed.

Red was suddenly very angry.  "Doesn't she know why we're here? Doesn't she realise that today's the anniversary of- of-" he choked, unable to go on.  He had loved Aeris.

1Vincent put a gloved, clawed hand on Red's head.  "She realises.  Remember how she wept in Cloud's arms when Sephiroth murdered that gentle girl? How she sobbed as though her heart was breaking? How she went for Jenova-Life half-blinded by tears? But she wouldn't be our Yuffie if she allowed that loss to make her mope and wail.  She has her own way of mourning, and if it is not the same as ours - well, let it go.  It's right for us to enjoy this happy reunion even as we remember Aeris.  We have not been together like this for eight months, since Cloud and Tifa were married.  We can allow ourselves some pleasure."

They both stared at him.  This was the longest speech they had ever heard him make.

Cid produced an explosive and biologically impossible expletive.  "You sick? You ain't never been the sensitive type!"

Vincent was unruffled by Cid's rudeness.  His crimson eyes twinkled.  "I'm sure," he said suavely, "That that is an accusation nobody will throw at you, Cid."  He swept on, down the steps, his red cloak flapping about his boots.

Cid stared, open-mouthed, while Red gave a snort of laughter.  Cid was frowning in puzzlement, trying to work out if Vincent had insulted him or paid him a high compliment, all the way across the plaza and down to the beach.

THE first person they saw was Cloud.  The second was Yuffie.  She was giggling, trying to tug his hair, and he was turning around and around, hands out, trying to stop her.

"Oooh," she squeaked.  "Trendy look, man!"

They could see that he had tried to tame his spiky locks by growing his hair longer and tying it into a ponytail.  "Stop it, Yuffie!" they heard him laugh as they approached.  "Tifa doesn't like the Shinra haircut, that's all."  He saw his friends and paused to grin at them.  Yuffie tugged his ponytail and darted away, shrieking with laughter.  "Ouch!" He shook his head.  "I knew that girl'd be trouble..."

Red hung back as first Vincent solemnly shook Cloud's hand and then Cid gave him an exuberant hug.  It was very hot, as it always was in Costa del Sol, and even the breeze off the sea could not cool him.  He could feel his fur beginning to shed already.  And his nose was dry.  For an instant he wished he was back at home in Cosmo Canyon, pottering about Bugenhagen's laboratory.  Or sitting quietly in the chill, dank Cave of the Gi at Seto's feet, talking to the fossilized remains of his dead father.

Then Barret came bumbling up, Marlene at his side.  Red did a double-take: Barret's little girl was growing up.  She was already almost as tall as Yuffie.  She was no longer the skinny, light-starved child of the Midgar slum who had lived in the permanent shadow of the plate - that damned pizza! as Barret called it - but was a healthy, blooming girl with her Papa's sparkling dark eyes and a smooth, coffee-and-cream complexion.  The beauty that in later years would make her famous was already showing through.  But for now she was still a girl-child: she bounded up to Red and flung her arms around his neck, hugging him with unconcealed joy.

That alone made this whole trip worth the trouble.

THEY were all here.  Reeve looking sober in a cream-coloured suit, a silk tie knotted about his throat in spite of the heat.  Reeve always looked sober: as mayor, it was his responsibility to care for the people of ruined Midgar.  He was having a new town built on the coast, a town full of gardens, using the great wealth of Shinra, Inc. to employ all those impoverished citizens who used to live in the slums.  Elmyra, flushed and pretty in a green dress, laughed with Marlene, her eyes rarely straying from Barret's burly form.  Spike wondered how long it would be before the great lunk proposed.  The thought of another wedding amongst his friends did not bring him the joy he should feel. Perhaps it was the heat that made him feel so depressed.

Red-haired Johnny circulated, carrying a tray of soft drinks: Red wondered where his lovely, dark-haired wife was hiding herself.  He liked Conchita, always so cheerful, a true daughter of happy-go-lucky Costa del Sol.

Cid had a pint of beer in one hand and a fag in the other.  He was surrounded by a bevy of swimsuited girls, and was obviously glorying in the attention.  Red had never understood how the grizzled pilot was so attractive to women.  His first love, always, was his engines, the Highwind most of all.  Red did not think that talk of horsepower and miles-per-gallon and overhead camshafts was the usual chat-up line amongst humans: but these girls were hanging on every word.  And asking intelligent questions, to judge by Cid's approving nods.  Even Shera, his wife, came a close second to Cid's beloved engines, yet in spite of his frequent swearing she was devoted to him.  As he was to her, in his bluff way.  Red wished that Shera could be here.  But she was sick, Cid said, rolling his eyes.  Every morning, without fail.  Red was a little anxious about Shera. 

Dio was there, bare-chested as usual, a blonde on each arm, boasting about his adventures.

Red lay in the shade, panting.

Even Vincent was being sociable - well, as sociable as he knew how, seeing as this was really the middle of his night.  He sat in the shade of a striped beach-umbrella, shifting as the sun moved to keep out of the direct sunlight.  Not that the sunlight damaged him - he was a man-beast, not a vampire, in spite of rumour - but Red knew that his night-seeing eyes were extremely sensitive, thanks to Shinra's evil experiments.

Shinra's experiments, led by the late, unlamented Hojo, had damaged so many of Red's friends.  What they had done to Cloud, meddling with his mind and with his best friend Zack's, was unforgivable.  For that alone, quite apart from what they had done to unhappy, maddened Sephiroth, the Company had deserved to be destroyed.  When Red thought of how nearly he had become yet another of Hojo's wicked experiments, his fur stood on end and he shuddered.  If not for Cloud, and Tifa, and gruff Barret, and gentle Aeris, what would have become of him?

And yet... Shinra was destroyed.  The world was being made anew.  But still the monsters that Shinra had made infested certain parts of the world, threatening the brave new life that had sprung from Shinra's ruin.  Red himself had had to organise peace-loving Cosmo Canyon into a monster-destroying taskforce.  When would evil be wholly wiped-out? When would children like Marlene be able to live without the shadow of fear hanging over them?

He shook himself, literally shaking off his gloomy thoughts.  While his friends lived, they would devote themselves to cleansing the world of Shinra's misbegotten experiments.  For the first time, people had hope.

So why did he feel so hope-less?

AS the sun began to go down, the barbecues came out.  Cloud re-appeared in a bright red shirt and calf-length shorts patterned in green and blue and orange.  Yuffie shrieked, "GrossNESS!" when she saw him.

The townsfolk gathered, chatting.  Someone had a guitar, and someone else had a flute.  The children scampered across the beach, playing tag.

Red couldn't bear it any longer.

One year ago, Aeris had died.  Wickedly murdered by Sephiroth.  Corrupt, unhappy Sephiroth, infected and maddened by Jenova, who wanted the whole world for herself.  Cloud had told how, at the last, Sephiroth's green eyes had begged to be put out of his misery, in the last seconds before Cloud's Omnislash fell on him.  But when Red shut his eyes he did not see Sephiroth's final surrender.  He saw that evil sword pierce Aeris' heart, and he wanted to howl his raw-nerved anguish to the stars.

He got up and shook himself, scattering shed fur.  He paced down to the sea and sat at the edge of the waves, tail locked around his feet, staring eastward.  In the west the sun was setting in a blare of orange and red light, sinking behind the Corel mountains; and on the horizon in front of him a slim crescent moon was rising.

They were dancing now.  Clapping and singing and dancing.

When had the young and enthusiastic Nanaki become this sad Red XIII? When Shinra had captured him? When Aeris had died? When Cloud had fallen into the Lifestream, insane until Tifa rescued him? No.  Then, Nanaki had been driven by his determination to see Jenova destroyed.  Even Bugenhagen's death had only fuelled that determination.  He had vowed to fulfil Bugenhagen's last wishes, whispered on his deathbed: to preserve the world, to protect Cosmo Canyon.  It was afterwards, in the rejoicing that had culminated in the marriage of Cloud and Tifa, that this cold worm had entered Nanaki's heart.  And Red did not know why; or how to get rid of it.

It was some moments before he realised that he was not alone.  A woman, her long, dark hair shadowing her face, also stared out to sea.  Over a white sharkskin swimsuit she had tied a gauzy strip of fabric patterned, like Cloud's shorts, in green and blue and orange.  It looked considerably better on her.  She stood with her back to him: but he would know her scent anywhere.

"Tifa?"

When she turned he could see that she was very pregnant.  She smiled her delicious smile and made her way slowly towards him.  Carefully she settled down beside him and draped an arm over his shoulders.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to greet you properly." She patted her stomach.  "I'm not very mobile these days."

Red found himself gawping and shut his mouth with a click of his teeth. His mind a blur, he tried to remember what he knew about humans and babies.  "When-" he blurted.  And shut up, wishing he could blush.

Tifa laughed.  "They were due yesterday, but they're perfectly happy where they are, making my life miserable." She didn't sound miserable, she sounded like any doting mother-to-be.

"They-?" Red gulped.  "Yesterday?" He sat very still, terrified that the babies would decide to be born at that very instant.

"Twins.  Don't worry, Conchita - that's Johnny's wife - has everything arranged.  She's Costa's doctor, you know." Tifa gave him a playful tap on the muzzle.  "I can't dance in this condition, but I can still talk to my friends."

"Twins," Red sighed.  "I was a twin," he whispered.  "Until the Gi came.  My kind always has twins.  Had twins.  I wish..."

All at once he understood why he was so unhappy.  Not just remembrance of Aeris.  The children.  The human children.  Hojo had said it, long ago: the Ancients and Nanaki's kind were all but extinct.  Now Aeris was gone; and the Ancients, the Cetra, had returned to the planet.  But his own kind? Did they return to the planet? He didn't know.  He did know that there were no more of his kind left in Cosmo Canyon.  For the rest of his long, long life he would remain alone.

With the instinctive sympathy that made everyone love her, Tifa said, "Oh, Red! Red, I'm so sorry!"

"There's nothing to be done," he said bleakly.  "I'll have no children."

AS the night darkened, bonfires were lit on the beach.  Red flames flickered, reflected from the quiet sea.  The people of Costa del Sol sang softer, night-time songs.

Gradually all Red's friends, all those who had fought Jenova and Sephiroth in their own way, joined him and Tifa.  Marlene fell asleep on Elmyra's lap.

"Aeris..." Elmyra sighed.  "It's a year, now, since that time.  We are free of the threat of Shinra and Meteor.  That's what Aeris wanted. She knew that her destiny lay beyond Midgar." She wiped her eyes. "I always knew that she was special. She saved us."

Barret had his arm around her, and hugged her close.  "Thanks to you," he said gruffly.  "You cared for her when she was an orphan."

Cloud raised his glass to the crescent moon.  "To Aeris," he said simply.  "Thank you."

Their hearts full, they gazed at the sky.  It was a clean sky, free of the taint of Meteor.  No mere words could express the debt that they owed to Aeris.

IN the morning Cid lay on his bed, his eyes closed, wishing he was dead.  Inside his head a forge-full of dwarfs was hammering horse-shoes.  He groaned to himself, swearing off alcohol for ever.  Had he really tried Costa's infamous seaweed brandy last night? The very thought made him feel sick.  "Never, never, NEVER AGAIN!" he moaned.

It was then that the door was flung open with a crash like the collapse of a mountain.

"Up!" Vincent ordered.

Cid cursed him for two whole minutes, clutching his head.  His brain felt like a pot of jellied eels.

"Up!" said Vincent again.  He put a mug of tea on the bedside table.  "Up and dressed, Cid.  Five minutes."

Cid's hangover squealed.  "Stupid of me to expect sympathy from a hard-hearted @##%£ like you."  Gingerly he sat up and reached for his tea.

"We have a new quest."

Cid cracked open one eye, looking at Vincent with dark suspicion.  The man-beast was more animated than Cid had seen in months.  "Ggh.  Wha'?"

"Over breakfast.  Hurry." 

Vincent was gone.  Cid wished he could snuggle down under his duvet and groan for a fortnight, but curiosity forced him to rise.  A jug of cold water poured over his head helped a bit, but every step jolted through his head as he made his way to the back garden, where everyone was gathered on the patio.  Never, never, never again!!

He refused anything but oj and a gallon of tea.

Before long, Vincent stood up.  "Listen," he said in that tone of his that demanded attention.  "I have news.  I found Professor Gast's notes in the library of the Shinra Mansion.  Have you ever wondered, Red, how Hojo knew so much about you?  He was told about your kind by the Professor.  _And you are not the last!"_

Red sat bolt upright, too astonished to speak.

Vincent was so excited that he could not keep still.  Beginning to pace, he said, "Professor Gast searched the world to find a safe place for him and Ifalna.  At first, he investigated the north-east archipelago." Cid nodded, and wished he hadn't.  It was in those deserted islands that Cloud had found the Knights of the Round.  And those pesky goblins.  "Gast decided that they were too dangerous," Vincent continued.  "He described the monsters we fought there: and also another kind.  Red-haired, wolf-like creatures with an intelligence greater than any human's.  Your kind, Nanaki."

Cid rubbed his brow, wondering if he was dreaming.  More Reds? It took some getting used to.

"We will go in the Highwind to look for them." Vincent smiled at Red.  "We will find your family."

Cloud gave a whoop of joy that almost split Cid's skull in two.  Then he looked at Tifa and his face fell.  "Oh..."

Tifa took his hand.  "We'll call Shera over, and of course Conchita is nearby," she said courageously.  "If you want to go..."

"No," said Red firmly.  He had a gleam in his eye that Cid had missed recently.  "Cloud stays here, where he belongs.  Barret: Marlene and Elmyra need you.  Reeve: you have duties in Midgar.  Yuffie, Vincent, Cid - will you come with me?"

"#*&%%! Yes!" Cid yelled.

"IT'S been six months..." Cloud was walking up and down, baby Fleur on his shoulder.  Shera, whose own baby was due soon, smiled at him over her knitting.  "Six months since they left.  What's happened to them?"

"Don't fret." With expert hands Tifa buttoned Aeris's babygro.  "You know there are dozens and dozens of islands out there, none of them marked on any map."

"Yes, but..."

"And Cid can land the Highwind on a sixpence.  And they're well-supplied with ultimate weapons and level four limit breaks and mastered materia.  And Vincent and Red between them will keep Cid and Yuffie from each other's throats."

"You always demolish my arguments even before I make them," Cloud grumbled.

"You still wish you'd gone, too."

"No. Yes.  I don't know! This is the only place I want to be, with my family.  But I still feel responsible for my friends.  How could I forgive myself if something happened to them and I wasn't there?"

Tifa smiled at him.  It made his heart give a peculiar, fluttery jump.  "That's why we love you," she murmured.  "You care so much, even if you pretend to be cold.  We can read you like a book, Cloud."

A wave of pink spread across Cloud's face.  "Uh -"

"Cid won't let anything happen to them," Shera said calmly.  "He promised to be home in time for the baby's birth, and Cid never breaks a promise.  I only hope -" and she gave a little grimace "- that he hasn't thought up some inappropriate name while he's been away.  I don't want my child to be called 'jet engine' or 'aileron' or 'flaps' or 'chocks away'!"

As Shera intended, her friends laughed.  Then Cloud the warrior, slayer of Sephiroth, destroyer of Jenova, wailed, "Tifaaa! Fleur has just been sick down my back!"

                                                            *

THE Highwind hovered over the last island in the Western Archipelago. When the adventurers had departed from Costa del Sol so lightheartedly, they had had no idea how long their quest would take.  They had landed on island after island after island.  Each time they had been plagued by goblins and worse: new, many-eyed monsters seemed to spring from the very ground they trod on.  Sapphire dragons; topaz dragons; diamond dragons... Cid had named them all, cursing horribly.  They were out of potions, out of tents, out of antidotes.  They had done some good, ridding the world of these dreadful beasts: but they had found no trace of Nanaki's kind.

This was the last island.  Like too many others it was not marked on the map.  Mountainous, circular, there was no place for the Highwind to land.

"Darn it!" Cid sighed, too weary to swear with his usual vehemence.  "We're stuck."

"You said you could take the Highwind anywhere," Yuffie sniped.  "You're doin' this a-purpose to make me sick.  Island-hoppin' with no time for me to recover before we're off again - ulp!" Before Cid could make some devastatingly rude reply, she clapped both hands over her mouth and ran for the deck.

Red, melancholy personified, laid his head on his front paws.  He was so depressed that even the glow at the end of his tail was dull.  "Face it, Cid," he growled.  "Professor Gast was wrong."

"No!" cried Vincent, striding to the front of the cockpit.  He squinted down through the windshield, his red eyes desperately searching the island below.  "There's got to be a way!  I knew Professor Gast.  He was the most honest man I ever met."

"He allowed Ifalna to be taken by Shinra," observed Red sourly.

"He lost his life defending her," Vincent reproved him.  "Think, Nanaki.  This is the last island in the chain.  Professor Gast met your people.  This must be the place he meant."

"How?" Red demanded.  "We can't land - don't you understand?"

It was Cid, in his gruff way, who defused the argument.  "This place seems familiar," he grunted, "though I ain't seen it before.  I remember... Cloud described an island like this when we was sharin' a beer or ten in Rocket Town last year."

"What?" "How?" and "Urghh!" moaned Yuffie in the background.

"Knights of the Round," said Cid tersely.  "He told me the Knights came from  Round Island.  It can only be this place."

His companions groaned.  The Knights were mighty warriors, but very strange people.

"Ok, ok," said Cid.  "Cloud an' Tifa an' Barret got here by chocobo." Already he was swinging the Highwind around to point west. (Yuffie threw up.) "What say we pay a call on Choco Bill's Ranch?"

HERO, Cloud's gold chocobo, looked at the adventurers with a supercilious air.  His mother Beauty, the black chocobo, warked at him anxiously.  "He don't like anybody 'cept Cloud," Choco Billy explained.  "He's a fierce, fightin' bird, best these stable ever bred.  He's highly-strung, you see.  An' proud? Prouder than a peacock is Hero!"

Cid, fag dangling from his mouth, snarled, "We'll see about that!"  And he dragged the bird's head down to his level.  "Be good," he said threateningly on a puff of grey cigarette-smoke.

"Wark," said Hero sulkily.

Somehow they clambered aboard.  Hero, bucking, let them know that he was not pleased. Cid dredged up vile phrases that would make a hardened Shinra trooper blush, and sent the bird across the plain, past Kalm, and over the sea.

Hero's long legs bounded across the waves almost - Cid was forced to admit - as fast as the Highwind.  And mountains, to a gold chocobo, were scarcely an inconvenience.  Sooner than they expected they reached Round Island, where they dismounted before the mouth of a cave and left Hero chewing greens in the sunshine while they wriggled into the darkness under the island's tallest mountain.

The floor was sandy and bare.  The far end of the cave was a tangle of dead, bone-white roots.  The roof dipped low over their heads, and Cid found himself stooping instinctively.  Red was their vanguard: he made for the furthest reach of the cave, nose to the ground, following the Knights' scent.  There was a break in the back of the cave, a narrow gap.  Red and Yuffie passed through easily; Vincent's lithe body squirmed through without much trouble; but lanky, awkward Cid got stuck, and needed his friends to pull him clear.

They tumbled into unexpected daylight, and a field, green and smooth.  The sun overhead shone hotly on a scatter of men dressed in white, arranged in an hieratic pattern about a 22-yard strip of shaven turf, each end demarked by 3 poles topped, like the pillars of Stonehenge, with bars of wood. 

"Oh, gawd!" moaned Yuffie.  "Cricket!"

                                                            *

_What's the point of writing a fanfic if you can't include the odd self-indulgence? Skip this bit if you like._

Vincent was normally a perfect gentleman, but he had a distressing enthusiasm for the Summer Game.  Eyes bright, he made his way to the Pavilion to talk to a very distinguished gentleman who wore a bow tie.  When he came back to the companions he said, "They're playing a team from Midgar.  Reno's the last man in; Sir Gareth is bowling.  We'll have to wait for this innings to end, then we can ask the Knights about Nanaki's people."

Yuffie flopped full-length on the grass.  "I dunno what you're on about," she grumbled.

In the middle, the two batsmen one red-haired, one blonde,  were conferring.

"I've scored 199 runs," Elena hissed ferociously.  "D'you know how many batsmen have scored 200 against the Knights?"

"Ergh-"

"None. Zero. Zilch. Nobody," Elena carried on as though Reno hadn't made a sound.  "All you need to do is block this last ball of the over.  Then I'll be on strike.  Understand?  You face one ball, the Knights change ends, and Sir Courtney will be bowling to me.  OK?"

"Yeah, I -"

"You let me make the runs, ok? Leave this ball, then it'll be my turn. Got that?"

Reno pulled a face.  He was a bowler, not a specialist batsman like Elena, but he didn't need her to spell out the laws of the game.

"Remember.  Block.  Or you're dead," said Elena as she returned to her place at the non-striker's end.

  Reno took guard and bent over his bat, determination blazing from  every pore.   Behind him Sir Brian the wicketkeeper, that verray parfit, gentil knight, crouched down, ready to catch the ball if it passed the stumps.

Sir Gareth, grinning, walked away from the wicket, tossing the ball from hand to hand.  He turned when he reached the patch of scuffed grass that marked the start of his run-up, and began to run.  Faster and faster he went, until he reached the wicket, his arm went up and over, the ball flew from his hand...

It was a beauty.  It bounced under Reno's bat and struck the stumps, sending the middle one cartwheeling end over end.  Sir Brian dodged, overbalanced, and sat down, roaring with laughter.

"HOW WAS THAT??!!" Sir Gareth demanded of Sir Richard, the Umpire.  Sir Richard raised his index finger.  "Out," he said solemnly and needlessly.

The Midgar innings was over.  After tea it would be the Knights' turn to bat.  Reno flung his bat on the ground in disgust.  The other knights crowded around Sir Gareth, clapping him on the back.  "Well bowled, Sir Gary!" "Brilliant, Sir Gary!" "Well done, old man!"

Elena, spitting-mad, strode towards an embarrassed Reno.  Without a word she broke her bat over his head and stormed off to the pavilion.  Dazed, rubbing his head, wondering if Rude would spare a cure-spell, Reno trailed dismally after her.

Red stopped King Arthur as the Knights made their way towards the pavilion for tea, and explained their quest.  "Ah.  Yes," said King Arthur, stroking his beard.  Even on the cricket field he wore his sword at his belt.  Red's companions kept a wary distance.  "Your kind, Nanaki? They live in a series of caves behind the pavilion.  I say, would you chaps care to partake of tea and cucumber sandwiches?"

Red rapidly but politely declined.

"Whew!" said Yuffie as they skirted the white-painted pavilion.  "I was worried there for a minute.  I remembered how they asked Emerald Weapon to play for their team.  I think that's what made it so angry it attacked us.  D'you remember," she said, giggling, "how Sir Bors hit it with his cricket bat?"

"Yeah," growled Cid.  "Useless ^*$$&£! Nearly got us killed because he forgot he wasn't holding his sword!"

Red, forging ahead, made no reply.  There was a strange scent in his nostrils.  A scent that made the blood pound through his veins.  He plunged into another narrow passageway that twisted and turned as it went deep into the earth.  He urged muscle and sinew on, panting, and at last burst out into a great, jewelled cave.

He skidded to a stop, astonished to the core.

This was a magic place.  Raw gems shone in the walls, lighting the entrances of many, many caves.  The air was rich with the scent of musk.  A red-furred, beautiful beast, her ears hung with rings of gold, gave him a startled look, then yipped a series of calls.

At once more creatures catapulted out of the caves.  Bearded, fanged, they growled deeply as they surrounded the adventurers.

"Ohh," sighed Red, overcome.  He lay flat on the floor in an attitude of respect belied by his sparkling eyes.  These were his people!  He would never be lonely again!


End file.
